Video Analytics and Facial Recognition

After this week of holidays and having presented Eye Tracking, we’re going to speak about Facial Recognition. Facial Recognition is a computer system that allows automatic identification of a person from a picture or a video frame (for example). Nowadays, it is easy to detect a face in a picture or video, the tools are performing from the moment it can detect a face on the camera or video. The smartphones, webcams and digital cameras now incorporate facial recognition as a tool for autofocus.

So what could be some of the applications of Face Recognition?

1. Police research to identify a theft recorded by a surveillance camera (close circuit television also focuses on the comportment recognition thanks to the steps analysis or suspect paths in a public area)
2.  Access control secured by a robot
3. And so on

In fact, you certainly already know about the topic via Facebook. The company had to abandon facial recognition in Europe; detecting people’s faces on pictures could put their private lives in jeopardy. But in the US, this technology keeps going: facial recognition is used by government agencies (FBI among others) and private companies. Furthermore, this technology should soon be used by the military industry. The US Air Force could have up to 30,000 drones in 2030 equipped with facial or biometric recognition allowing them to identify individuals depending on their size, age, kind and skin color. As a concrete example, the US used facial identification technologies to identify Osama Bin Laden.

So can you explain how it works? 

 

If you’re familiar with the TV show “Las Vegas” you undoubtedly have already seen it in application. Simply explained, you first need an image or video that is then sent to a software to scan it. The software will detect the position of the eyes to proceed to an alignment. In function of this alignment, a record of various characteristic points of the face is performed (nose, shape of the chin and so on). A geometric design is then saved and will serve as a base on which the researches will be performed.

So, are there any commercial usages of this? All the examples so far are military... 

Of course. The potential marketing and financial implications are pretty obvious. An Italian firm that designs mannequins has developed a model called “EyeSee” which is equipped with facial recognition cameras that record consumer behaviour and classifies them by age and gender. This will provide a better understanding of the client and how to efficiently target him. This reminds us of a passage from “Minority Report”.

Wow! This is quite fantastic....

Indeed it is! We shall leave you with one last piece of trivia. You may think this is pure science fiction but are you planning on going to Brazil for the next World Cup? If yes, be ready to be recorded by the “Robocop Glasses” that are equipped with a camera capable of recording 400 images per second and compare them with a numerical database of 13 million photos.
So if you were planning on doing something naughty in Rio, think twice! 

We hope you enjoyed this week's edition of this blog. Next week, we promise to bring you more action packed and exciting applications of the Video Analytics technology!